Balance Forecaster App

Balance Forecaster App

This is perhaps my favorite website ever.  

I stumbled onto this website while trying to come up with a spreadsheet that I could format to figure out my monthly bills, when they were paid, and how much I had left in my checking account for paying more on credit cards and other spending.  There is a free two week trial, and I guarantee you won't want to live without it after trying it.  There is a yearly cost of $6 or $15 for a lifetime membership.  I jumped straight to the $15 after one week signed up for this program.

First you have to figure out your monthly bills.  It doesn't need your personal information, and you don't enter account numbers into it.  Just the name, amount, and date of your recurring bills and paychecks and the starting balance of your bank accounts.  After that, the program takes over and tells you how much will be in your accounts DAILY for up to one year.  Yep,  you needed this, didn't you???

How the Basic Average Consumer uses it:

I have a rewards credit card that I use for all my purchases to get rewards points on that I save up to use for our annual vacation.  My monthly bills that don't get paid for on my credit card come out of my checking account.  I needed to know how much I could pay on my credit card every payday to keep my balance low or paid off so that I am not being counter-productive and accruing interest charges that are more than my rewards are worth.  So I know every paycheck, how much will be in my account on a daily basis.  I look ahead one year, see what my lowest balance will be, subtract my "buffer amount" (I use $200--just in case) and make my payment for whatever is left.  So if I see that the lowest balance in the next few months is $500, I subtract $200 for my buffer, and I can make a $300 payment to my credit card(s).  Easy, right?

One BIG advantage, is that you can go in and change your current bank account balance and check off items that have posted, so you don't have to keep up with every little item in your checking account, just the recurring charges.  I like to use a split screen on my computer to check off my posted items.  One side with my checking account, the other with Balance Forecasting App.

There is an iPhone app available, though I haven't tried it since I use Android.

If you don't check out anything else, give this the two weeks.  It will be worth your time!!!

Free two week trial/$6 yearly/$15 lifetime
Use it bi-weekly
Fairly easy with some math skills and common sense
Non-intrusive